Thankful Thursday

Welcome to the blog hop!

Thankful Thursdays originated over at The Nut House Go on over and check out what everybody's thankful for today!

Today I'm so thankful for a husband who works hard to provide for me. I'm also thankful that we both have jobs that we (usually) love. Some people aren't as blessed!

I'm thankful for the crazy motivation I've been gifted with this week! Being able to keep up with FlyLady so well is not like me at all. I usually do something for about 2 days then give it up.

I'm so thankful for my family. I don't take for granted how wonderful my family is! They are the best.

On a much different note, I'm thankful that we started getting the paper a couple times a week. I didn't even realize how much I missed it.

And in light of my dinner tonight...I'm thankful for Subway. Nothing hits the spot like a spicy italian on italian herbs & cheese bread. Nothing.

One Week!

My sink has looked like this for one week. I'm so proud of me!

When I leave for work in the morning, this is what I see.

When I get home from work in the evening, this is what I see.

It makes me smile.

And today, while I was at work, John made himself a PB&J. I know this because there was a paper plate with jelly and peanut butter on it in the trash. I would not have known this by looking at the sink. My darling husband (who I did not tell to wash every dish after he uses it like I do!) actually washed, dried and put away the knife he used to make the sandwich.

I'm so proud of him, too!

So Day Eight. The baby step today was to get a binder (luckily I found one upstairs) and put some paper in it (luckily I found some upstairs). Then I wrote down my morning and before bed routines. I guess I'm supposed to look at this each day! :)

My 'mission' today (still in the bedroom) was to declutter all the flat surfaces. I decluttered our night stands, dressers and the radiator. Then I dusted them. Our room is looking good!

On another note, I folded 37 pairs of white socks tonight. I hate folding white socks. Exactly 2 of those 37 pairs were mine. I'll leave you to guess who the other 35 belong to.

FLYing

FLYing. Not sure if I've explained what this means. FLYing with FlyLady stands for Finally Loving Yourself. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Day Seven. Here's what I've done so far: Left my sink shining this morning; Spent 2 minutes on a hot spot (coffee table) before work; Did the 'mission' for the day (see below) after work; Did what few dishes there were, dried them and put them away; Another 2 minutes on a different hot spot (butcher block in the kitchen) after work.

I really like doing the 2 minutes on the hot spots. I don't get them clean, but the second (ok, maybe third) time I hit it, it will be finished.

Ok, the missions. They're included in the daily schedule email. Yesterday I cleaned the ceiling and walls in the bedroom and bathroom. Today the challenge was to clean the 'edges' in those rooms. So I did! I straightened up anything that was clustered around the edges of our bedroom, then took the vacuum to it. I actually vacuumed the whole floor, as well as under the bed.

And finally (this seems like a lot, writing it all down, but honestly it doesn't feel like a lot!), today's baby step. Laying out my clothes. Part of my nightly routine now needs to include laying out my clothes for the next day. Which I've already done. (Go me!) I've done this in the past, never routinely, but I love having my clothes already picked out. Just makes the morning that much easier. I also have the coffee all ready to go. Another thing I used to do (sometimes) which will make my morning run that much smoother! I plan to make that a part of my nighttime routine as well.

One week so far!

What a Tasty Tuesday!

Yeah, baby.

John is working tonight. I usually don't eat very well on the nights John works. Sometimes it's take out (think Subway). Sometimes it's snacks (think chips). Sometimes it's nothing good at all (think chocolate). I hate cooking for one.

But while scanning the WalMart shelves on my break today, I remembered that I had fresh mozzarella at home. So I found these juicy, delicious tomatoes. (I forgot the fresh basil, darn!) As soon as I got home I sliced them up, topping them with coarse salt, freshly ground pepper, a little EVOO and some (dried) basil. Yum. I mean, seriously, YUM.

I was in heaven eating this. Best thing I've had in a long time.

Almost off the wagon...then back on again!

Ah, here we are at Days 5 & 6.

Day Five sucked. I was sick. Luckily the only thing to do that day was listen to the voices in your head, and squash them. The voices told me my head was full of snot, so I blew my nose. Ha!

Sorry, that's kind of a joke. But kind of not. I was so sick on Sunday, I didn't do anything. But luckily my sink was clean, and that fact made me feel that much better! Seriously, Day Five was listening to those nasty voices telling you that you can't do it, and it'll never become routine, and your house will always be a mess! Then you turn those thoughts around to positive ones. Ok. Done.

Day Six I woke up feeling much better. I still didn't get dressed to shoes because I was still kinda sick. And when I'm sick I just wanna be in my pj's. But as the day wore on I felt much better. So John and I got some shopping done (with gift cards!) and we even took a walk. We also made a yummy dinner, and the dishes are all cleaned and put away!

My baby step today was 'Hot Spots'. First you have to decide what your hot spots are (dining room table, radiator in bedroom, butcher block in kitchen) then you spend 2 minutes hitting one of them. Just 2 minutes. I cheated. I spent about 4 minutes on the dining room table. And it made a difference! I don't really understand the 2 minute rule, unless it's so you don't get burnt out. But I'm about to take another 2 minutes and hit the radiator in the bedroom that's covered with clean clothes!

Now, The FlyLady also does this email thing. Lots of emails. I almost didn't sign up for the emails, but then decided I didn't want to do this half....way. So I did. There are various emails throughout the day, some with testimonials, some with 'challenges' and some with the schedule for the day. For a few days I only read them, but today, being a new week, I decided to jump in and start doing what they said! (It helps that I have today off, and time to clean!)

This week's 'zone' is the master bedroom/bath/closet. And today's task was to clean the ceilings and walls. So I did! It hardly took me anytime too. I used the vacuum and a feather duster. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Oh yeah, I did a couple loads of laundry too.

Days 3 & 4

I'm flying high with FlyLady! Here are the steps so far:

• Day One - Shine your sink
• Day Two - Dress to lace up shoes (also read 2 minutes of email reminders from FlyLady)
• Day Three - Do what we've already done (just keep keeping on!)
• Day Four - Write it down

So today was Day Four. Yesterday was easy. I even wore lace up shoes to work. And let me say my feet and legs felt much better. But back to today. Day Four. Let me just tell you...today was the real test for me. Because today is Saturday.

Here's my normal Saturday routine, if I don't have to go anywhere first thing.

• Get up and pee
• Make coffee
• Let the dog out
• Veg on the couch for 1, 2, maybe 3 hours watching TV and doing various online activities

Now, since I'm trying very hard to make this FlyLady routine stick, here's what my today (so far) looked like.

• Got up and peed
• Made coffee
• Let the dog out
• Got dressed (!)
• Did my hair and makeup (!)

Now I'm vegging on the couch...but I've already read my email reminders like I was supposed to. I wrote out 'what we've done so far' on 2 post-it notes and placed them above the sinks in the bathroom and kitchen. I'm not wearing shoes, but it's too hot for that. Now I'm gonna go pry John out of bed and maybe do some laundry. Mount Washmore. Ha!

Disclaimer: FlyLady does not require multiple bulleted lists. I'm just in a list-y mood. But I don't know if FlyLady approves of lists or not. She's big on the daily journal, which has routine lists in it. So maybe. I guess I'll find out eventually.

Can this get any easier?

Day Two.

Who would have thought it would be this easy? I clicked on the Day Two link from FlyLady and wow! The only thing I had to do today was get dressed to lace up shoes. Basically, all the way dressed, even wearing shoes. This was not a difficult task, considering the fact that I worked today. If I had not worked, I must admit, I probably wouldn't have been wearing shoes all day.

Although...

I have been having lots of trouble with my feet/legs being sore, and I know it's from my flip flops that I've been constantly wearing. Not so good for the legs. It's just too hot to wear sneakers.

But I digress.

This system seems to be built upon routine. Thus, I continue to shine my sink today (and my sink is still clean-I even cleaned out my coffee cup this morning as soon as I was done with it!), as well as the dressed to the shoes deal. And tomorrow...who knows? Maybe the third step will be putting on makeup, doing laundry or dusting the TV. Only time will tell...

When Your Sink is Shiny...

For quite awhile now I've been feeling...behind. Overwhelmed. Or maybe more like I'm drowning. I suppose there are many ways to describe it, but what it all boils down to is, I feel swamped. Between work, church, John, Zoe, family and other activities, there's no time left for housework.

And my house suffers.

Until now.

Last night I randomly found a web page with help. Real help. The first thing that caught my eye was the acronym CHAOS: Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Ha! Wow that hits home. There have been times that my doorbell rings and I look around my house and think, "Can I just not answer the door?" Or John will have a spur of the moment idea to invite somebody over for dinner and I cringe, thinking, "How much time do I have to clean before they get here?"

Hopefully today, Day One, will be the start of a routine for me.



Day One, according to FlyLady is shining your sink. That's it. Easy, right? Well the instructions are very detailed. It begins with emptying your sink (you don't even have to wash the dishes, just put them on the counter!) and filling it with hot water and 1 cup of bleach. For one hour. I did that, for both sides of my sink. Then rinse. Then I scrubbed with comet. Then rinse. Then I used my stone scraper to dig into any nook and cranny I could find. Then rinse. Finally, I sprayed some Windex on the sink and wiped it down with a paper towel. Then, the final step was to dry it out with a dish towel. Done!



Thus, the main point of Day One. Always, always, always dry out your sink when you're done. No water spots! And do not put dirty dishes in the sink. They suggest a dishpan under the sink for dirty dishes. I'm not so sure about that. We'll see.

Wow, does my sink look better! Better than it has since I've known it (for 3 long years). The clean sink motivated me to do all the dishes. (Of course I rinsed and dried out the sink after I washed the dishes.) I was going to leave them in the strainer...but wow, motivation! I dried and put away all the dishes. Then I cleaned the stove and counters. I also cleaned out the refrigerator and took out the garbage.

Now, all that wasn't in the first step. The first step was just the shiny sink. But gosh, when your sink is shiny, it makes you want to go that much further! Now my job is to dry out the sink whenever I use it. That's Day One. Day Two...well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

Tasty Tuesday

Ok, something new! I'm far from gourmet, and definitely don't cook dinner 7 nights a week. My husband works odd shifts, and I'm lazy some nights. If the sink is full of dishes, chances are I'm not cooking. But, on the nights I do cook, I love it!

So tonight we had yummy, delicious, mouth watering pizza. Homemade dough:

Well, homemade from the break maker. That counts, right? Thanks.

I split the dough (not quite) in half. I spread out the first (bigger) half to make a pizza crust.

I know, it looks kind of oblong and oval-ish. That's ok. It'll all work out once you get it on the pan. Speaking of...I pre-heated my pizza stone, then arranged my crust on the stone, along with the toppings.

In this order: crust (obviously), sauce, mozzarella, pizza seasoning and parmesan cheese. I usually also add pepperoni, tomatoes or some other yummy topping(only to my half), but I felt like just cheese tonight. And John always feels like just cheese. I baked my pizza at 425 for about...15 minutes I think.

Ta Da!

(I forgot to take a picture before I cut it.) The pizza was delicious and the only thing that topped it was the garlic knots which I made out of the other (smaller) half of the dough.

I got the thumbs-up approval from the hubby, so I think I did good. Wow, those garlic knots look ginormous. They really weren't that huge. But they were delish!

What tasty dishes are you dishing up?

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It's not that time again!

Where did the 6-pack of Hershey bars go? Were s'mores had? Was it melted down to make candy? I know that John had 1. And I just know that it was not me who ate the rest of that 6-pack of candy bars (not frozen, of course) in less than 48 hours time. No way.

What about that stop sign down the street? The one the cops sit at, on occasion. Would I blow through that stop sign? Even with a cop sitting mere yards away? No way. Not me! And if that cop had decided to come after me, I most definitely would not have used my husband's name to get out of the ticket. Of course not. I would take my due with no excuses.

This laptop I have (which of course does not get that much use) does not have chip, cookie and other random crumbs that have fallen down in between the keys. Uhn, uh. Not me. I would never sit here on the couch munching away while I blog or facebook. Crumbs would never be found trailing down my shirt from my snacking habits. I would not let said crumbs make their way down into the keyboard of this expensive (all-be-it outdated) piece of equipment. I would take much better care of my things than that.

And finally, it's definitely not me who has had 4 days off in a row, with 2 more to come, and no finished housework in sight. No way! I would be much more motivated and 'accomplishing' than that. I would not spend my days off instead at the track...on the boat...with my nephews...doing NOTHING!

Well, my coffee cup is not empty, I am not going to go refill it and then sit my butt right back here on the couch. No way. After all, there's housework to do.

Good Day Sunshine

***Warning***This is a very "picture-heavy" post!!! Enjoy!

Last week I took care of my nephews for a day. We had a blast. My parents are gone (to Brazil!) so me and my sisters spent the day at their house, enjoying the pool. Here's some pictures, with as little description as possible. :)

Me and the boys, Caleb & Zach, enjoying the pool.

Swimming! Caleb loves to swim! Zach enjoys it too!

Aunt Sarah swimming too. Well, attempting to get used to the 74 degree water!

Aunt Christine being...herself.

Cozy boys, drying off. Don't you just want to squeeze them?!

Sweet Caleb, smiling up at the sky. :)

Caleb was crawling all over the yard!

"Hmm...what is this on my hand?"

"Oh, it's this green grass stuff!"

"Uh oh, you caught me pulling the grass out..."


"I think I'll see how it tastes..."

"Not as good as you would think..."


Nothing better than relaxing in the shade with a bottle!

Olivia was asleep most of the time....but I snapped a picture before she left. :) Isn't she adorable!?

Disclaimer: Sunblock was applied, and it was atleast a half hour after lunch, so as not to cause cramps. :)

That's the difference

Don't you just feel different some days? Like there's no one else out there who could possibly think like you, act like you, or see things the way you do?

Sometimes, when I'm walking down the street (okay, I don't, on a regular basis, walk down the street...let's go with when I'm driving my car, or walking through the grocery store). Anyway, sometimes, when I'm doing some things, I look at those around me and think, "The difference between you and me is..." fill in the blank.

It could be anything, really, from the mundane to the extraordinary. From the petty to the emotional. The difference between you and me is I would never wear a shirt that tight. The difference between you and me is I could never afford that car. Or that haircut. Or that house. The difference between you and me is I have a conscience. The difference between you and me is that you're pregnant. And I'm not. The difference between you and me is I did not vote for Obama.

I could say something cliche now about how our differences are what make this world what it is. Or about how without the diversity of each and every person this life would be boring. And that's all true. But honestly what I'm feeling right now is there is no one in this world just like me, and that's a good feeling. I can't be duplicated, I'm unique.

And that's the difference between you and me.

Olivia

My darling niece Olivia is 4 months old already! I find that so hard to believe! It seems like just yesterday I was holding her in the hospital room, not long after she was born. Time sure does fly. She's such a content, happy, well-adjusted baby. She may not sleep through the night all the time...but hey, that doesn't affect me, does it?! (Sorry Christine!)



I love Livy, and she loves me too. :)